Weʼre raising £1,200 to buy instruments for a music school in Sierra Leone

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Story

Jack and Ben Trumpet and Trot over Many Mountains

In October, I will be travelling to Sierra Leone for the second time, accompanying students from Wells Cathedral School for ten busy days of outreach work with schoolchildren in and around Freetown.

Wells has been supporting the work of the Ballanta Academy of Music for almost a decade, and this year we hope to give a huge boost to their brass outreach programme.

I have been using pTrumpets and pBones as a fun way to deliver whole-class practical music lessons to my students in the UK, and I think that these plastic instruments would be the perfect way for the brass teachers in Freetown to promote their work and build the numbers of students coming to the academy for lessons.

With your help, I hope to be able to take at least 10 instruments out to Sierra Leone this year. Any additional money raised will be put towards the Wells & Ballanta scholarship program, which provides funds for deserving young musicians to be able to continue with lessons that they would otherwise be unable to afford.

To raise awareness for this cause, my younger brother Ben and I will attempt the Tranter Round this August. This gruelling circuit of 18 Scottish mountains will see us cover almost 60 km (36 miles) and climb over 6,000 metres (20,000 feet), starting and finishing in the shadow of the mighty Ben Nevis. Our target is to complete the circuit in under 24 hours.

To add to the fun, we will be carrying a pTrumpet and a pBone with us on the hills, and we will serenade the confused Scottish wildlife with the best rendition of the Sierra Leone National Anthem that we can muster in that state of exhaustion. We'll be filming some clips of this foolishness to share with all of our supporters!